Vladimir Putin has proposed a summit with Donald Trump and Xi Jinping next month to negotiate an end to the Ukraine war, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
Zoom in: The idea came up in Putin's October 9 phone call to Trump, the Journal reported, citing a former Russian intelligence officer briefed on the matter. The same call produced a deal for Moscow to sell diesel on the global market.
- The meeting is unconfirmed. If it happens it would exclude Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and could be held at the November APEC summit in Shenzhen, per CNBC.
The backstory: Trump signed an executive order on October 18 waiving new Russia sanctions from a bill authored by the late Senator Lindsey Graham, after temporarily lifting sanctions on Russian diesel exports.
- Zelenskyy said the move to "undo all of this, to block all of it, seems wrong to me." Trump accused him on Truth Social of resisting an end to the war, saying he will avoid anything that drives Russia from the bargaining table.
The other side: The Institute for the Study of War wrote that the order "will only enable Russia to continue financing and protracting the war in Ukraine without any proper incentives" to negotiate seriously.
Between the lines: A Putin-Trump-Xi table with Kyiv outside the room is the shape Moscow has sought since 2022, and Republicans in Congress have joined European allies in criticizing the sanctions relief.
Why it matters: The fifth year of the war is being renegotiated around US diesel prices ahead of the midterms, which ties pump costs in America to the terms Ukraine may be handed.
What's next: Zelenskyy said Sunday he spoke with Trump negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner and that their teams are preparing the next diplomatic steps.
